Who do you serve Christ to please?

This entry is to kinda revisit my last posting. I received a New Testament Bible from a good friend of mine today. It is a New Living Translation. What I love about reading different translations of the bible is that you get a new view of scriptures that you have already read...and they speak to you in a different way.

In getting back to my last posting I talked about how I left my church and all I had built there. So, in God's way of getting us to think about other aspects of the very situation we have been dealing with I came across a scripture in this new bible I received that made me stop and think.

Galatians 1:10
Obviously, I'm not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ's servant.

I just had to stop and think of just what motivations do I have to do the things I do in Christ's name... am I trying to please people or am I trying to please God? I really believe this is a question that we must ask ourselves continually.... maybe daily. So I ask you....

Who do you serve Christ to please?

Blessings,
Terry

A struggle with what God tells you...

How many times do you question what you feel you are hearing from God is actually from Him? There are times I can feel God's voice in my spirit but it's not really what I want to be hearing. I have been going through a tough time on my path with Christ and thought it would make a great blog entry so maybe someone else who goes through something similar may find strength.

Back last October I began to feel God telling me to leave my church. Now I had been struggling with some things I was seeing in church but leaving was something I just did NOT want to do. I fought this for a span of 3 months but finally just had to obey and step out on faith. I kept hearing that there was something great waiting for me. I was involved with quite a few things in my church. I was part of a drama team, taught Sunday School on occasion, church league softball, short children sermons, and playing guitar for the church. I was supposed to just give up all that and leave? Oh...this was a hard thing to do but I did it anyway on faith.

I visited a couple churches and learned some wonderful things. Each sermon I heard seemed to be connected to what I was going through. As a month or so passed I began to wonder if I did the right thing. I wasn't finding this great thing I was supposed to have. I wasn't feeling a connection to the other churches like I thought I would. I began to think I was deceived in what I was hearing. Thinking that Satan had whispered in my ear to get me out of my church. Then a couple things happened that began to bring me back to my church. One of my sons had an artwork entered in a competition and this happened to be at my old church. Then on another occasion a good friend from my church contacted me to go to a Hillsong United concert with him because he had an extra ticket. In both these cases I felt that was where I needed to be. Back at my church and being with my family from that church.

I began to meditate and pray on this. Should I go back to my old church? This is when I began to have a wonderful outpouring and the Holy Spirit began to speak volumes to me. I want to start with this scripture...

James 2
20You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend. 24You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

I was wondering if I was deceived into leaving... now I know that God was testing me to see if I would show my faith by doing what he asked of me similar to Abraham's faith being made complete by his willingness to offer Isaac as a sacrifice knowing God promised to make him the father of nations. It was God's voice I heard and I obeyed. I fought it hard tho....lol, but obeyed in the end. I willfully gave up all I had built and coveted. Now, upon returning to my church I am certain in the Lord that He will reposition me into all I was doing there before and will bless all I do there with great measure. The Lord blessed Abraham in Genesis 22 because he obeyed. I know God isn't looking at what I gave up as a sacrifice to Him but as a seed He gave me. Only by giving it up will He be able to multiply it.

May God bless you all

For Freedom...

Gosh, it's been a while since I made an entry on my blog. I have been doing a course reading the Bible in 90 days and it has taken up quite a bit of my time. I am not a fast reader....lol. I was thinking this morning about how some things take up so much of "us" ... of you.. of me... and often these things are of no real importance to our existance. We still occupy our time with these irrelevant things and they take away from things that are relevant. I have gotten behind in my reading because I have been doing other things... of less importance. Facebook is a big culprit. I spend too much time on this. I have taken time from something that I feel is very important and been using it messing around reading people's status updates and playing silly little games. This thought came to me as I heard a scripture this morning....

Galatians 5:1

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

In a sense, this Facebook has enslaved me. I am often "checking in" on Facebook on my phone while at work when I should be working... spending time in the evening on it when I should be doing my reading. It had restricted me from doing things I want to be doing, enslaving me so to speak... sounds odd doesn't it. As Paul brings out in today's scripture Jesus set us free for us to BE FREE. I thought I had freedom before I came to Christ but I was enslaved with the sin of my existence. Jesus delivered me from myself and gave me such hope for my eternity. But now, while an alien in this world I once felt comfortable in, I find myself getting enslaved again. Legalism in the church is such a slavemaster. Not many Christians realize this. Paul even stated that falling in line with everyone else is not freedom.

"You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from Grace. But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope.... The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love."

So... I strive to now do the things that I feel are essential to my existance. Re-align my priorities and regain the freedom Christ freed me for.

Blessings for all of you...
Terry